Champions League Betting – Juventus at Man. City
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:39 am ESTPublished:
Juventus (+450) at Manchester City (-125), Draw (+250)
Manchester City are off to a perfect 5-0 start in the Premier League. Tomorrow (2:45 PM Eastern), their top-form will be put to the test against one of the better teams in Europe as the Citizens host Juventus at Etihad on Match Day 1 of the 2015-16 UEFA Champions League.
Man City stayed perfect on the weekend thanks to a 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace. The win kept City alone at the top of the table, still four points clear of surprising second-place team Leicester City, and now six ahead of Palace (who entered the weekend in second spot).
The team will have to make due without star striker Sergio Aguero tomorrow, though. The Argentinian is sidelined with a knee injury.
“Sergio is not fit,” said manager Manuel Pellegrini in his pre-game press conference. “I hope he will be OK for the weekend, but we must wait to see the result of the scans.”
City will still have its full complement of defenders, which will likely be enough. The team has relied on its stout defense all year and has yet to concede a goal. They’ll also be facing a Juve side that has struggled to open the year after losing numerous star players – including Carlos Tevez and Andrea Pirlo – in the offseason. The Vecchia Signora dropped two of their first three games in Serie A, and only managed a draw (1-1) against Chievo on the weekend.
“We all expected more,” goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon admitted. “There are some valid reasons, but when you don’t get a result in three games, you can’t make excuses. We have to focus on the problems and understand what we can do individually.
Juve and Man City have only faced each other twice, both times in the 2010-11 Europa League group stage. For what it’s worth – which isn’t much – both of those ended in a draw.
More concerningly for the Italian side, they haven’t won in England since beating Man. United back in 1996. Given how poor they’ve played early this season, don’t expect that streak to end anytime soon.
Pick: Man City (-125).
(Photo credit: Ronnie Macdonald (Community Shield 21 – Samir Nasri corner) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
